1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is power distribution, or, more specifically, methods of cable-free power distribution in a rack configured to house electrically powered components, racks for housing electrically powered components and cable-free power distribution, and components configured for installation in a rack configured for cable-free power distribution.
2. Description of Related Art
The development of the EDVAC computer system of 1948 is often cited as the beginning of the computer era. Since that time, computer systems have evolved into extremely complicated devices. Today's computers are much more sophisticated than early systems such as the EDVAC. Computer systems typically include a combination of hardware and software components, application programs, operating systems, processors, buses, memory, input/output devices, and so on. As advances in semiconductor processing and computer architecture push the performance of the computer higher and higher, more sophisticated computer software has evolved to take advantage of the higher performance of the hardware, resulting in computer systems today that are much more powerful than just a few years ago.
Today, computer systems (such as servers or blade servers) may be housed in a rack with other components: routers, switches, hard disk arrays, optical disk drives, and the like. Some or all of the components, including the computer systems, may require a connection to AC power (Alternating Current) to operate. Such a connection in typical rack systems today requires a cable that couples a computer system to a power supply, such as a power distribution unit. A rack that houses many computer systems and other components will, thus, include a correspondingly great number of power cables to couple each of the housed computer systems to power. The greater the number of cables included in a rack system, the greater the cost and the complexity of the rack system.